D.C. Circuit Significantly Limits District Courts’ Review of Deferred Prosecution Agreements

In a case with significant implications for the power of district judges to review the terms of deferred prosecution agreements (“DPAs”) between the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and corporations to resolve criminal investigations, on April 5, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit took the extraordinary step of granting a writ of mandamus and vacated a lower court decision that had the practical effect of rejecting a DPA between the DOJ and an aerospace services company, Fokker Services, B.V.  The case has significant implications in light of a judiciary that has been increasingly questioning the terms (and in some instances, the wisdom) of the DOJ’s decisions to enter into DPAs.